Russia joins Paris Climate Change Agreement: clear the way for an EU-Russia Eco-Alliance?

Author:

Ralf Ostner

27.09/2019

In the following a programmatic article by the more Putinbiased Russia expert and Gazprom consultant for the EU Prof. Alexander Rahr, in which he propagates an eco-alliance between Russia and the EU. After that my assessment.

"Ecology unites EU and Russia

September 2019

The ever-growing ecological movement in Germany, supported by broad sections of the country's population, has supplanted the newly emerging peace movement and completely marginalized the new left-wing social justice movement "getting up". The Germans are more interested in saving the planet from global warming than in disarmament. People in Germany are over-sensitized to green issues, and the atomic threat of war, which has never been so great as it is today, does not give anyone the necessary importance here.

Germany and the EU do not seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation when power politics dominate international relations and disarmament agreements collapse. Politicians are driven by the demands of the Fridays-for-future mass demonstrations. Protests, or political discussions about the question of a nuclear-free world - which seems much more urgent than climate policy - do not exist. Should it come to the stationing of new nuclear missiles worldwide, the threshold to nuclear war sinks in a frightening way.

Germany and the EU need to wake up. The old East-West conflict is history, the confrontation NATO / EU versus Russia - secondary. Europe is on the verge of a global US-Chinese confrontation that may lead to a second Cold War with all the ensuing consequences.

The European continent must consolidate again. A common approach EU-Russia is without alternative. Both sides need an overarching theme, a common external threat that unites the continent on a new, contemporary level. If peace policy does not unite the sides, then there can only be one global ecological agenda.

Russia and the EU must organize a summit, where they quickly agree on environmental and climate change measures in the sense of a green alliance. Here, the EU and Russia can shuffle their geopolitical ambitions and controversial value conflict, focusing on the truly important goals that move Europe.

What is forgotten in the current German eco-debate is that Germany alone can not reach the Paris climate targets. German foreign policy must separate itself from its normative values. Instead, other major powers, notably Russia, must be won for a global environmental alliance.

Russia, the largest country in the world, is crucial to global climate rescue. Here reforestation measures can help to reduce the CO2 content in the atmosphere. Germany and Russia can jointly produce hydrogen (from natural gas). Russia urgently needs modern waste disposal facilities from Germany. Russia has the largest freshwater reservoir in Europe - a commodity that is gaining importance in the green economy.

If you get closer to ecological issues, make important commitments, regain confidence, and decide on a road map, today's current conflicts will disappear from the agenda.

Which political party in Germany will be the first to adopt these proposals? "